Letters

Anti-charter bias, not parking, driving clash at school
Re: “Conflict simmers over traffic woes at Stoner Avenue Elementary,” Oct. 17
I’m a parent at Citizens of the World Charter school, and my daughter was one of the students who had to walk past protesters on Friday (Oct. 18) yelling, “Hey hey! Ho ho! CWC has got to go!”
I thought this issue was parking until I came to pick up my daughter and was handed a small, yellow flyer filled with anti-charter school Internet links.
I understand very well that many charter schools are run by for-profit corporations that have no interest in educating children and endeavor only to enrich themselves. And so when I decided to enroll my daughter, I looked very carefully at the mission and methods of CWC. And what I found was a community of dedicated educators committed to teaching every single child to her or his fullest potential through methods that truly engage the child and draw upon a natural love of learning.
As the daughter of a lifelong teacher, I am invested in knowing that the teachers at any school that my kids attend are not being exploited. And I know that at CWC they are not.
I was particularly offended to see the question on the flyer that read: “Does CWC recruit only certain populations or are minority students, special needs students and students with low test scores excluded?”
Such a question could only come from someone who has a generic animus against charter schools with no knowledge of CWC. My daughter has friends — not just classmates, but actual friends — at CWC who are African-American, Latino/a, Asian-American, white, and of mixed race. Every scrap of information from the school is in both English and Spanish, and the principal hosts both coffee and cafecito sessions with parents. The school gives preference in its enrollment lottery to children eligible for free or reduced lunches. And I know for a fact that special needs students are welcomed at CWC, because my friend’s son who has special needs attends CWC and loves it.
If this issue is truly about parking, I know that I, as a CWC parent, and we, the CWC community, are committed to finding a solution. But I strongly object to anyone who protests our school using “parking” as a cover for an ulterior motive.
Anoosh Jorjorian
Santa Monica

Protest against charter missed the mark
Re: “Conflict simmers over traffic woes at Stoner Avenue Elementary,” Oct. 17
Turn over a rock at any so-called grassroots protest against a charter school and you will typically find the teachers union behind it, whipping up fake controversy.
Your story failed to mention that protest organizer Jose Benitez is an LAUSD employee and as a teacher was rated “less effective than average” in a Los Angeles Times report.
Perhaps Benitez could improve his performance if he spent less time on the sidewalk protesting Citizens of the World Charter during school hours. Friday’s protest, timed to coincide with a CWC tour, reeked of union dirty tricks.
Fortunately, parents who are drawn to charter schools tend to be informed enough to see through this. We haven’t decided where to send our child to kindergarten yet, but if anything, this faux protest tipped the scales toward CWC, which isn’t bound by the union’s absurd lifetime tenure rules that protect ineffective teachers like him.
Last year the powerful California Teachers Association helped kill a bill that would have made it slightly easier to fire teachers who abuse students. Then it tried to pass a sham bill to reduce the political fallout from protecting pedophiles instead of kids. Gov. Jerry Brown, usually a strong ally of CTA, vetoed the bill, saying it made the problem even worse.
We are generally supportive of unions but can think of no other profession that makes it nearly impossible to fire not only poor performers but also those who endanger children.
LAUSD couldn’t even immediately fire the Miramonte Elementary School teacher who is charged with blindfolding students, feeding them his own semen and putting cockroaches on their faces. LAUSD had to pay him to leave, and he’s sitting in jail, collecting his pension, paid for by taxpayers.
As long as that’s the case, parents will continue to flee to innovative and high-performing charter schools like CWC, which have more control over hiring decisions. The unions know that, which is why they use underhanded tactics to attack fledgling charters.
There may be some legitimate logistical concerns that need to be worked out as CWC gets off the ground, and we are fairly certain they can be addressed with a little constructive dialogue. However, we suspect these protest shenanigans are less an issue of traffic and parking than an anti-charter political agenda in disguise.
Jenny and Victor Chi
Westchester

Mar Vista should chill out about medical pot
Re: “Mar Vista rallies against proposed pot clinic, Oct. 17”
I was too ill to attend the meeting of the Mar Vista Community Council but wish I had been there. Anyone who wants to stop a pot clinic is either myopically ignorant, blatantly moronic or has been blessed to have never had cancer or the other diseases medical pot benefits. Really, really stupid, or worse: selfish.
Since 1954 I have been fighting cancers all over my body. That’s 59 years. In 1952 I was accidentally overdosed with radiation when given X-ray treatments, like millions of others around the world from the 1930s to the late 1950s.
In 2001 I had a tumor the size of a golf ball in the arch of my left foot. I was in agony all the way up to my hip while the leg dragged along, sleep evaded me and morphine and methadone were useless. I went to Europe. A friend there suggested I “take a puff”; within minutes I was pain free but not stoned.
I believe that marijuana is an intelligent plant and knows why it is being smoked. Wanna get high? Wanna no pain? Come to Earth Mamma’s friend!
Jeanne Elizabeth Blum
Santa Monica

Potholes, not pot, should take priority in Mar Vista
Re: “Mar Vista rallies against pot clinic,” Oct. 17
Where are the priorities in Mar Vista? Many streets and sidewalks are in disrepair, and an article about pot ends up on the front page of your newspaper.
You should rather concentrate your energy on the fact that people like me are getting hurt badly on Mar Vista streets and make sure the L.A. Bureau of Street Services is not turning a deaf ear when residents like me come forward and tell them over and over again where problems exist.
What good is it for me to call 311 when the department is totally unresponsive? Can they please take a more proactive approach rather than reacting after someone gets hurt?
In a direct plea to Councilman Mike Bonin, please tell me what I can further do after contacting both your field offices about fixing the road on the 3600 block of McLaughlin Avenue in Mar Vista before someone else falls from his bike like I did. Also please tell me how many more years the sidewalks near Charnock and Centinela will look like they do today?
Is it a lack of money, a lack of respect or a lack of responsibility on the city’s part? I don’t know. But in the presence of issues like this there’s 200 people coming together to talk about marijuana. This makes me very angry.
[Argonaut reporter] Gary Walker previously wrote that some sidewalks are at such an angle that they have attracted skateboarders who use them as ramps. What are the residents in this area doing about this? There seems to be a total lack of interest in dealing with infrastructure issues.
Stefan Treff
Santa Monica

Santa Monica Airport is worth saving
Re: “Close the Santa Monica Airport … with a caveat,” guest opinion, Oct. 10
We don’t often write letters, but feel this is necessary on the Santa Monica Airport topic.
When we were plane owners, flying back and forth to the Salinas Valley, it was a pleasure to have this airport at our disposal rather than Hawthorne or Whitman. We lived in Venice and still do. It’s been 45 years now —45 years we’ve been listening to people complain that they should never have bought a home near the airport in the first place.
The problem, as we see it, is lengthening the runway to allow small jets to land. Leaving the “buffer” zone too short at 300 feet is wrong. It should be left at the 1,000 feet it was.
This is a small-plane airport and should be available to small plane owners, commuters, flying schools and tourists. It should not be turned into condos and parks. We know the developers are salivating at the thought of getting their hands on this piece of land.
If someone would take the time to count the number of small planes taking off and landing everyday, they would be agog at the ratio of small planes to accidents.
Stop this constant complaining and be thankful the city has revenue from a beautiful airport and spend a day at the museum, restaurants and various events.
Bruce and Marlyn Gibson
Venice

6 Comments

A coworker and friend of Jose Benitez
on October 31, 2013 at 7:44 pm

In regards to the letters about the charter school. I think people should check their facts and stop being paranoid. Just so you know, Jose Benitez, was NOT at the protest. He was at work that day. Also, Jose’s immediate family owns 7 properties on both Lindblade and Wagner Street. So, perhaps this information will calm the paranoia that this is all “dirty union tricks.”
Also, are you aware that Jose has worked with LAUSD for 10 years. Perhaps you should look into his test scores from throughout his career and not just based on data from one year at one school.
Jenny and Victor Chi, you clearly have not checked your facts.

Since they own 7 properties, this is a nuisance issue, but more than that a property value issue. So they’re using words like “segregation” to rally their poorer neighbors and conveniently imply this is a race issue, when it has nothing to do with race. It’s also extremely irresponsible to teach Stoner kids to hate CWC kids who are only as old as 7 and completely innocent.

And if they do own 7 properties, nothing is going to change the the neighborhood more than when they sell some of these properties to developers. See how peaceful your neighborhood will be when the condos move in. And why does a family who owns seven $700,000 homes have a kid at Stoner who gets a free lunch meant for impoverished kids? All the kids at Stoner get a free lunch. That’s nice for a family who owns 4.9 million dollars in real estate, modestly.

They say CWC is taking advantage of a “poor neighborhood,” but if the above is true, then the Benitez family is worth several million dollars in assets. Seems like they might be the ones taking advantage of a poor neighborhood at this point.

To Jenny and Victor Chi,
Your comments on Jose Benitez are exactly why the neighborhood has problems with CWC. Jose is the most equipped to handle our community situation in dealing with both LAUSD and CWC. He was working on a resolution before your school even opened. His family has the most at stake with multiple properties on that street. All of this, you do not know. Thank you for continuing to divide CWC from the neighborhood. Expect more protests!

Jose Benitez certainly was at the protest the day I toured. I recognized him from his picture in the Argonaut. And what he and other property owners do not seem to realize is that having a desirable school in the neighborhood would only increase property values. Parents sending their kids to the school would likely want to move to the neighborhood, increasing demand, if not for the protestors scaring them away. Parents will think twice about buying homes in the neighborhood if they think the neighbors are against them.

By the way, there are other issues in the neighborhood that are more likely to depress property values than a little traffic twice a day from a great school. Perhaps he should work on helping low-income kids in the neighborhood get a great education — like CWC does — in order to reduce poverty and crime. The literature Benitez handed out at his initial protest demonstrates he has a vendetta against charter schools, most likely because LAUSD educators, many of whom have been laid off at some point, believe the migration to charter schools is to blame. It would be wise, however, to look at the root causes of why parents are attracted to charter schools. Charters like CWC, WISH and Larchmont are here to stay, and no protests are ever going to change that as long as kids are getting a great education there.

Also, it’s truly shameful that educators at Braddock gifted magnet took part in this protest because they do not want to share space in their school with CWC. In fact, the ridiculous literature they handed out, accusing CWC of elitism, contains accusations that certainly apply far more to Braddock’s gifted magnet program, which only allows in kids who have certain test scores or who have been deemed gifted by a psychologist. CWC admits kids by lottery and gives a preference to low-income kids. I wonder why no one is accusing gifted magnets like Braddock of discriminating against low-income minority kids in the area. It seems like a form of legalized segregation. The difference is, that school is unionized.

If Benitez is truly concerned about property values, it makes sense to work with the school instead of trying to harm little kids by yelling at them as they walk to school. With a little cooperation, families with kids at the school will try to help make the neighborhood a great place for everyone.

The main issue with cwc is the location of the entrance gate and the traffic it has brought with it.
I am pro-charters, pro-private, and pro-traditional schools as long as they deliver responsible and caring citizens. I want to share my experience as a lindblade resident who lives in one of the homes in front of the cwc entrance gate.
I have lived in this area of mar vista all my life, by choice because I love it so much. It’s a beautiful community.
Imagine one evening as you are taking your daily evening stroll around your neighborhood you notice car after car beginning to drive around and around your neighborhood looking for and taking up every parking space, they are even parking in red spaces and blocking driveways. You become worried because this is very unusual. You notice all the people are walking into the back entrance of the school across from your home. This is even more unusual, in fact its the first time you have seen any activity this late in the school. There is what seems to be a party going on. It turns out to be a meet and greet for the new school that will be co-locating in a few days. A few days. This is how we found out about cwcs’ plans. We were taken by surprise and now we know why.
As oppose to the majority of the neighborhood children that walk to the stoner campus and enter thru the main gate, the majority of the cwc children arrive by car (over a hundred) and enter thru the back gate located on the residential side instead of the front gate. Both schools have different starting and dismissal times and both have after school daycare/activities. This makes for 6 waves of traffic now. First a few cars drop off SES students at 7:45am, then over 100 cars drop of cwc students at 8:30am. Most neighbors now spend our mornings inside because of the chaos during drop offs. The Pick up time is an ongoing ordeal starting at 1:45 past 6pm. And both schools have half days too, stoner on tuesday and cwc on wednesday, so even middays are now a parade of cars in my once quiet neighborhood. Also, before the the winter break, we neighbors were surprised by a concert/ walk a ton that took place in the campus. The noise and the traffic very disruptive for our families. Once again, we were not informed of this huge event. My neighbor had to leave to study for her nursing finals.
Out of good faith I have only focused on the traffic situation that this charter co-location is causing in my neighborhood because school politics and education preferences aside, we are the mothers, children, seniors citizens and hardworking people who just want to be able to enjoy our neighborhood again. There is talk that the charter school will double in size next year. We don’t even want to imagine what the traffic will be like if that happens. We wonder if they will outreach to our community before it happens or if they will just blind side us again? If this was your home, would you not speak up? I may be of the older generation but I believe curtesy and respect are always great for good relationships and without it there is always a victim, in this case us, we are being bullied (using children as their shields) by cwc to accept all their traffic and chaos.
Please feel free to rent or buy any of the homes that are available now due to this new invasion. The last renters on the corner house only lasted 6 months..sad.